TCP Acknowledgment Scheduling in Wireless Systems

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Solution Overview

Problem

In wireless communication systems, the delayed conveyance of TCP acknowledgments due to Best Effort scheduling priority leads to spurious timeouts, reduced system throughput, and excessive consumption of system capacity, as TCP data is retransmitted even if correctly received.

Innovation Solution

The system prioritizes TCP acknowledgments over Best Effort data and predicts their scheduling based on radio link statistics, ensuring timely transmission of TCP acknowledgments without relying on explicit requests from the receiving device.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Device complexity

If TCP acknowledgments are scheduled with Best Effort priority, then system simplicity is maintained, but acknowledgment delay occurs leading to spurious timeouts and reduced throughput

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvescheduling complexityVSAvoidacknowledgment delivery reliability
Core Design Contradiction:
Device complexityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary action by predictively scheduling TCP acknowledgments before the receiving device actually needs to transmit them. The scheduler anticipates the need for acknowledgment transmission based on predicted transmission timing and pre-allocates resources, eliminating delays without requiring complex explicit requests or additional signaling protocols.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

2Quantity of substance

If TCP acknowledgments are delayed due to Best Effort scheduling, then bandwidth resources are conserved for data transmission, but buffer overflow occurs and system capacity is wasted

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvebandwidth availabilityVSAvoidsystem throughput
Core Design Contradiction:
Quantity of substanceVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The scheduler performs preliminary scheduling of acknowledgment transmissions based on predicted timing, ensuring that acknowledgment resources are allocated in advance rather than waiting for explicit requests. This prevents buffer overflow at the transmitting device while maintaining efficient bandwidth utilization, as the predictive scheduling aligns acknowledgment transmissions with optimal time slots without wasting system capacity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

3Measurement precision

If explicit request mechanisms are used for acknowledgment scheduling, then scheduling precision is improved, but device complexity and signaling overhead increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvescheduling timing precisionVSAvoidsignaling complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system implements self-service by having the scheduler autonomously determine and schedule acknowledgment transmissions without requiring explicit requests from the receiving device. The scheduler uses predicted transmission timing and radio link statistics to automatically allocate resources, achieving precise scheduling while eliminating the complexity of request-response signaling mechanisms between devices.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Data Source

PatentEP2341685B1Method and apparatus for scheduling an acknowledgement in a wireless communication system
Publication Date: 2014.11.05 MOTOROLA MOBILITY LLC
  • EP2341685B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2341685B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP2341685B1 patent drawingFigure 3A

AI summary

A communication system (100) is provided that facilitates an expedited exchange of a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) acknowledgment by scheduling (338, 340) the TCP acknowledgment at a higher priority than Best Effort and/or by arranging (364, 366, 368) for a scheduling of the TCP acknowledgment based on a predicted transmission of a request to schedule the TCP acknowledgment.